This is my second completion in the last two weeks, so perhaps my modeling mojo is returning. I started this kit earlier this year, but lost interest when I was almost at the priming stage.

I decided to build the P-47D from the Technical Museum in Zagreb, Croatia. It is a P-47D that had served with the Yugoslav Air Force. I actually had two aftermarket decal sheets that contained this subject - Lift Here J-48LH The JRV Mosquitoes and Thunderbolts and Tigerhead Decals 48007 P-47 in Foreign Air Forces Around The World. I used the Lift Here decals. A photo of the real plane can be found here. There are other photos on the web as well.

The kit went together without any trauma. The decal instructions mentioned that this plane has no antenna mast or gun barrels, so I left them off. The photos showed that the bottom of the plane is light blue, and the decal sheet listed FS35450. I had a bottle of Vallejo Model Air 71.317 All SV. GOL Light Blue that I had purchased for a Razorback, but had ended up not using. It seemed right for this subject, and I liked the way it turned out. The gray on top is described in the decal instructions as Medium Grey FS35237. The Tigerhead sheet says Medium Sea Grey. After looking at the photos, I used AMMO 0245 Ocean Grey, but I think I should have used Medium Sea Grey, as the Ocean Grey looks a bit darker that what I see in the photos. I used AMMO 0206 RLM 81 FS34079 BS641 for the green, which is what the decal instructions indicated. It looked good.

Since I knew I was going to be using water-based paints, I primed with Floquil SP Lettering Gray. The main colors were sprayed without thinning at about 25 psi, which is a higher pressure than I normally spray with. I have found that with water-based paints, the higher pressure helps atomize the paint better. The result was reasonably smooth. I put two coats of Future on before decaling. The decals went on with Microset and a little bit of Microsol. They were sealed with another coat of Future, and that was followed by Matt Lucky Varnish from AMMO. I had used this on my previous build, and I was pleased with it.

Page last updated June 15, 2023.